Fan platforms are commonly implemented in gas turbine engines to form an aerodynamic gas flow path in between adjacent fan blades. In some past designs, such as the case in some non-hollow fan blade designs, the fan platform is integrally formed to the fan blade. With integral fan platforms, the fan blade dovetails carry the centrifugal loads from both the fan blades and the fan platforms, which necessitates suitably large fan blade dovetails to compensate for these loads. This in turn, requires a suitably large rotor disk to accommodate the fan blade dovetails and the related centrifugal loads.
With the advent of more complex, hollow fan blades in some engine designs, the use of integral fan platforms was replaced with discrete fan platforms joined independently to the rotor disk between adjacent fan blades, allowing for a smaller fan blade dovetail, and in turn, a smaller rotor disk. In addition to weight reduction benefits of the hollow fan blades and a smaller rotor disk, the use of discrete fan platforms also makes it easier to replace any damaged platforms without having to remove the entire fan blade, as was the case with fan blades having integral fan platforms.
Most of these conventional discrete fan platforms are attached to the rotor disk via pins through devises and lugs located on the platforms and rotor disk, respectively. However, due to the nature of the pin attachment, the discrete fan platforms have a tendency to shift during engine operation, requiring additional features to compensate for the shifting. Moreover, many of these conventional discrete fan platforms have been fabricated from separate components of aluminum or composite lay-up, which tends to be an expensive process.
Accordingly, there is a need for a lightweight, easily manufactured discrete fan platform that is stably retained to the rotor disk, facilitates in reducing the time required for assembly and disassembly, and is less expensive to manufacture.